One Thai soldier has been killed as fighting erupted on the border with Cambodia, a day after both sides agreed on a truce to end the fighting.
Colonel Prawit Hookaew, a Thai army spokesman, said on Friday that fresh fighting began hours after a ceasefire was declared on Thursday and continued overnight, AFP reported.
Lt Gen Thawatchai Samutsakorn, commander of Thai Army Region 2 said Cambodian soldiers hurled bombs toward the Thai border later on Thursday leaving two soldiers wounded. He also stated that another clash that broke out in the early hours of Friday, claimed the life of one Thai soldier.
Thai soldiers fired back but both sides have claimed that they did not fire, Samutsakorn said, adding that he has asked his commanders to talk to the Cambodian army about the issue.
The fighting between the Southeast Asian neighbors broke out last Friday in the northeastern Thai province of Surin over a long dispute over a small area of land that surrounds a 900-year-old Hindu temple. Both sides have blamed the other for triggering the skirmishes.
Heavy weapons fire has also strayed towards villages around the frontier, causing an estimated 45,000 people in Thailand and 30,000 in Cambodia to flee their homes.
Cambodia claims that Thailand used spy planes and poison gas during the conflict -- an allegation denied by Bangkok. The two countries have come under increasing international pressure to stop the violence.
The Thai-Cambodian border has never been fully demarcated, partly because it is littered with landmines left over from years of war in Cambodia, the report adds.
Analysts suggest that domestic politics may also be fuelling the conflict. They describe the Thai military action as a flex of muscles by the army, which staged a coup in 2006, ahead of the country's general elections.
The death of theThai soldier raises the total death toll in the ongoing conflict to 16 as the tense situation enters its eights day.
MA/GHN/MB